Former Stamford star basketball player arraigned on carjacking charges

Updated 6:05 pm, Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Former Stamford star basketball player arraigned on carjacking charges

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STAMFORD — Nearly a dozen friends and family gathered at the courthouse Tuesday afternoon as a former star basketball player and youth coach was arraigned for an odd carjacking.

Christopher Evans, 26, of Myano Lane, appeared before Judge Auden Grogins at state Superior Court in Stamford on charges of criminal attempted first-degree larceny and criminal attempted robbery of a motor vehicle for an incident Monday on Long Ridge Road.

Grogins noted Evans does not have a criminal record, but said his release could pose a public safety risk and ordered him held in lieu of $35,000 bond.

“This is some malarkey,” lifelong friend Chordale Booker said in the courthouse hallway following the arraignment. “I know Chris wouldn’t do that. He is one of the biggest people to contribute to our community and our kids. Chris wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Evans, who also played football, led the Stamford High boys basketball team to the FCIAC championship and Class LL semifinals in 2009. His career at Sacred Heart was cut short when he was suspended for the final six games of the 2013-14 season for violating team rules. He then transferred to the University of Charleston.

“Chris is the type of person that gets kids out of trouble,” said Michael Puckett, another of Evans’ supporters who was at the courthouse. “He hasn’t had a chance to tell his side of this. We don’t believe it.”

Brian Kriftcher, who runs the youth organization, called the accusations “strange and out of character” for Evans.

“We like and support Chris and hope he gets this straightened out,” said Kriftcher, who did not attend the court hearing.

Kriftcher declined to discuss whether Evans was still employed by the foundation, which is located near where Monday’s incident occurred. Police found Evans’ 2005 Honda in the foundation’s parking lot shortly after the incident.

A police officer saw Evans getting out of a car on Long Ridge Road about 3 p.m. Monday, while a woman in the driver’s seat was uncontrollably shaking and crying, according to a police report of the incident.

The woman told investigators Evans jumped into her car at the intersection of Long Ridge Road and the Merritt Parkway, Lt. Diedrich Hohn said. Evans was previously seen running on Long Ridge Road and tried to get other cars to stop, Hohn said.

The woman, 21, said she thought Evans was having some kind of medical emergency when he put his hand on the hood of her car and told her to stop. Evans told the woman he needed help and jumped into her passenger seat, instructing her to drive south on Long Ridge Road, a police report of the incident said.

The woman, who was driving from a friend’s home in North Stamford, said Evans appeared “very urgent and scared,” according to the report. Evans told her he was set up by a college friend and felt he was in danger and being followed, the report said. He told the woman to get out of the car so she would be safe, the report said.

The woman pulled over and told Evans to get out of her car as police officer Anna Edwards intervened.

Evans is scheduled to return to court to make a plea in the case on May 4.